Friday, June 8, 2018

Tony Deden on independence

From Tony Deden's chat with Grant Williams on Real Vision, which is probably one of the best investing-related interviews I've ever watched, and an example of the value they provide for a $180 yearly subscription:
And the third part was the idea of independence. So it was scarcity, permanence, independence.... And independence is even of significant value as well in the sense that much of what we see today in our world is interdependent.... We depend on so many external factors. We depend on suppliers. We depend on the light coming on when we turn on the switch. We take it for granted that the light will come on. We depend on the water company.  
But more so, in a business sense, we depend on, perhaps, key suppliers, that often, perhaps, their situation is not as strong as we think it is. We have competitive pressures that come as a result of competition that would not have been there had there not been credit. So credit creation—the debasement of money—has created an environment in which there is falsity within the competitive arena in which companies operate. And in order to survive, they have to, more or less, adapt to the conditions. So there's dependence on government for subsidies, or for tax abatements, or other such things. Sometimes there's dependence on one customer. 
So dependence makes a system fragile. So the more independent an organism is from external weaknesses, the more likely it is to add to its endurance, or its strength. So independence is very valuable, and is actually costly. There's an element of freedom. Freedom doesn't come free. You have to work at it. The threats to your freedom and to your liberty and to your independence are many, and they change from time to time and from apple to apple. 
But a successful practice...which seeks to protect, preserve, and enhance the patrimony over many years is one that must be concerned with these three components.